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Let the (Siding) Game Begin!

Last week, we finally bit the bullet and ordered the new siding for the house. After shopping around, we decided to go with James Hardie with Color Plus through The Home Depot. This stuff is amazing—not only is it crazy tough and stands up to anything you throw at it, but it comes in any of the above colors (or primed and you can paint it yourself) with a 15 year warranty on the color. Sign me up!

From my notes, you can see that we chose the HardiePlank Lap Siding with cedarmill texture in Light Mist for the lower part of the house, all the way around. On the gables we will do the HardieShingle staggered edge siding in Iron Gray (a tad darker gray than the lap). The trim boards we ordered are primed so that we can paint them black. They will look like eyeliner around the windows and doors.

We also ordered the flashing and house wrap and screws and all that stuff Ben knows how to use. Good thing he’s in charge of this project!

After the excitement of placing the order and the shock of paying for it, it was only a few days before it was all delivered to the front yard.

Today, we started the job—tackling one side of the house at a time. First, taking the old siding off the east side. The old masonite siding is probably 40 years old. And in rough shape. I thought it would just fall off. I was wrong. It took some major muscle!

Once the old siding was down (Don’t worry, Ben didn’t do all the work alone; I carried all those heavy pieces to the dumpster.) we tore off the tar paper they used as a moisture barrier.

Once all the nails were pulled from the subsiding, the house was naked! If you ever wondered what a 98 year-old looks like under her makeup, this is it.

Next, the old lady got a new pair of bloomers: house wrap (today’s vapor barrier…its made of woven plastic and works like goretex).

By the way, its really tough to document the process with photos when you’re both balanced on ladders and/or holding heavy stuff.

We stapled the wrap to the subsiding and then cut out the window holes and Ben tacked the ends down with temporary battens (just in case the wind picks up tonight).

There you have it—day one of the siding game. Tomorrow, the plan is to install some light mist lap siding! Stay tuned…the adventure continues…